By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff The whole world is watching as presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take aim at each other, and for the next five months both of them will throw everything they have at each other to persuade voters that they are the best c...

(Wikimedia Commons) In 1968, acclaimed British novelist James Graham "J. G." Ballard wrote a bizarre short story entitled Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan.  At the time, the late actor and former Governor of California was seeking to secure the candidacy for the Republican (Grand Ole Party or GOP) presidential ticket of the United States. Amazingly, J.G. Ballard predicted that Reagan would ...

Source: Amazon Books By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. An explosive new book, Crisis of Character, about former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary will be released by Amazon Books on June 28. It’s written by a former U.S. Secret Service agent with extensive insid...

Wikimedia Commons Port-au-Prince, Jun 6 (EFE).- Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, or CEP, has invalidated last year's presidential elections and will hold new elections next Oct. 9 and Jan. 8. The head of the council, Leopold Berlanger, told a press conference Monday that on Oct. 9 the first electoral round will be held, while the runoff balloting will be on Jan. 8, 2017. In that wa...

Source: Easy Diplomacy EasyDiplomacy.com Press Release - The meeting between the President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera with Italian entrepreneurs took place on Thursday 26th May at UnionCamere, on the occasion of his first visit to Italy. The goal is to foster investment opportunities in Costa Rica, which is considered one of the most competitive states in terms of corporate serv...

Life magazine cover from Britt Nelson's personal collection By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. The brightest light in sports history went out late Friday night as boxing legend Muhammad Ali died in Scottsdale, Arizona at age 74. The whole world woke up Saturday morning...

Many suspects awaiting trial are housed alongside convicted criminal in Costa Rica's La Reforma Prison, pictured. (ICR/CRS Archive) The National Association of Criminology Researchers (Spanish acronym: ANIC) is trying to file a lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice in Costa Rica over the release of nearly 6,000 convicted criminals who can no longer be housed by the national prison system. ...

Michael Temer with Dilma Rousseff Sao Paulo, Jun 1 (EFE).- A group of activists with the MTST homeless workers movement on Wednesday occupied the Sao Paulo office of the Brazilian presidency and confronted police in the heart of the country's largest city. The group invaded the offices of the presidency on Wednesday afternoon and painted it with messages such as "MTST People Without Fear" a...

Wikimedia Commons By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.   All of this anger and disenchantment Americans are expressing toward the establishment government in Washington, DC is propelling both Republican New York billionaire Donald Trump and Vermont Senator Bernie San...

Wikimedia Commons By Drew Johnson The World Health Organization celebrates World No Tobacco Day by promoting policies that cause more smoking. Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Tuesday, May 31 marks the World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day. The United Nations’ public healt...

Photo by Bill Damon, Flickr Commons Lima, May 30 (EFE).- A group of Peruvian shamans faced off Monday in a duel of rituals to bring an election victory either to Keiko Fujimori or to rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in the June 5 presidential runoff. The rituals were celebrated by six shamans, four in favor of Fujimori and two supporting Kuczynski, outside Lima's National Stadium. Empowered b...

Source: Rolling Thunder Facebook By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. On Sunday, more than 500,000 motorcyclists rode into Washington, DC as the annual Rolling Thunder “Ride for Freedom” Rally over the Memorial Day weekend got under way with presidential candidate Republican...

(Wikimedia Commons) San Diego, May 28 (EFE).- The visit of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to San Diego sparked angry and nearly violent protests that resulted in at least a dozen arrests. The police chief of this Southern California city near the Mexican border, Shelley Zimmerman, said at a press conference that a minimum of 12 people had been taken into custody fo...

Source: Correos de Costa Rica Vatican City, May 27 (EFE).- Pope Francis met in a private audience here Friday with Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis, who invited the pontiff to visit the Central American country. "If it's possible," the pope responded. Solis arrived almost 20 minutes late for the audience, a delay officials said was due to a misunderstanding between the Vatican ...

(Archive image for illustrative purposes. Wikimedia Commons) By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Washington, May 26 (EFE; additional reporting and opinion by The Costa Rica Star). Real-estate mogul Donald Trump has exceeded the minimum number of delegates needed to secure t...

Source: Correos de Costa Rica A cadre of 19 legislators from eight political parties in Costa Rica have signed a request for Papal intervention against the potential legalization of abortion. The request was announced earlier this week during an ordinary session of the Legislative Assembly; of the eight parties that signed the petition, seven are well-established in Costa Rica, only Restaur...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 23 (EFE).- Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman will not appeal any ruling opening the way for his extradition to the United States, a move approved by the Mexican Foreign Relations Secretariat last week, if he reaches an agreement with U.S. authorities, defense attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez told EFE. "Joaquin is n...

Longline tuna haul. Source: Greenpeace. FAO Media Release - 16 May 2016, Rome - Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing is about to become much more difficult thanks to the imminent entry into force of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), a ground-breaking international accord championed by FAO. Now that the required threshold has been reached, with 30 Members having formally...

An EgyptAir Airbus. Wikimedia Commons By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Just as soon as EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday presidential candidate Republican Donald Trump -- without any real evidence -- claimed the tragic incident to be “...

Wikimedia Commons GENEVA  – The diversity of the needs of older persons is invisible in current policies related to ageing in Costa Rica despite the existence of good practices in the country, the United Nations Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, said on 18 May. “Older persons are not a homogenous group,” the expert stressed at the...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, May 18 (EFE).- Central American parents and children who are in the United States after fleeing the violence in their home countries went to Congress Wednesday to ask for "laws that protect them" and the legal protection needed to be able to apply for asylum here. Half a dozen children, some of them accompanied by their parents, traveled from Chicago to Washing...

imgflip.com By Britt Nelson Editor’s Note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Kentucky handed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a very weak victory Tuesday night over Democratic rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, described by a CNN news anchor as “tighter than a Speedo on Chris Christie.” San...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, May 16 (EFE).- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it is extending for another 18 months the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Honduras and Nicaragua, a measure that also allows the extension of work permits. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced in a statement that the limit on this immigration benefit for Nicaragua...

By Britt Nelson Editor’s Note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. A new reality is spreading across the United States of America in places of traditional privacy – public bathrooms in shopping centers, airports, swimming pools and schools. Through President Obama’s U.S. Department of Education, p...

Michael Temer with Dilma Rousseff Brasilia, May 12 (EFE).- Brazilian acting President Michel Temer on Thursday chose leading figures from nine centrist and conservative parties for his Cabinet, which for the first time in decades has no female ministers. Temer, who had been vice president, replaced Dilma Rousseff of the center-left Workers Party, or PT, Brazil's first woman head of state, w...

Source: rree.go.cr The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó, concluded diplomatic, economic and education agreements during his one-day official visit to Costa Rica, from where he informed Hungarian news agency MTI by telephone from San José de Costa Rica on Wednesday evening local time. 'Hungary views Costa Rica as a bridgehead for building relations with Centra...

Pixabay Commons Washington, May 11 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama has no plans to divulge information about the secret military base known as Area 51, where spy aircraft were tested during the Cold War and where some believe confidential information about extraterrestrials is being kept, the White House said. However, Democratic presidential favorite Hillary Clinton has said that, if s...

ISIS fighters in Iraq. (Wikimedia Commons) By Britt Nelson Editor’s Note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. West Virginia voters spoke loudly Tuesday night in the Democratic presidential primary giving Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders a large win over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. While West...

(ICR-CRS Archive) The former President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla (2010-2014) described U.S. Republican presidential candidate, Donald’s Trump campaign rhetoric as “dangerous” even if the billionaire does not win the general election, in an interview published Friday by the Mexican newspaper, Reforma. The biggest risk that Trump represents to Latin America is not that he is likely to w...

Wikimedia Commons By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Trump, Clinton and Sanders – what a nice ménage à trois. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders refuses to quit the Democratic presidential race, causing much frustration within the campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary ...

Close up of a Marijuana plant flowering during the final stages of growth. EFE/file The return of Daniel Fowlie Briggs, a marijuana smuggler from the United States who spent more than 15 years in prison, is being cited as one of several blunders that led to the termination of Kathya Rodriguez, Director of Immigration in Costa Rica. President Luis Guillermo Solis, who appointed former Direct...

Source: U.S. DHS WASHINGTON, May 4, 2015 – Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson met with Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez Sanz to discuss opportunities for bilateral engagement on border security, information sharing, counter-narcotic efforts, and migration flows through Central America. Secretary Johnson and Foreign Minister Gonzalez discussed opportunities to stre...

Wikimedia Commons By Britt Nelson Trump buried Cruz in the Indiana Primary on Tuesday night while Sanders scored an upset victory over the former U.S. Secretary of State. Democrat Hillary Clinton’s recent comments about shutting down the coal industry in America replayed this week on national TV from West Virginia – a former coal country king -- apparently resonated with close-by Indiana...

Flickr Commons By Drew Johnson Editor's Note: Costa Rica is blessed to enjoy a very high level of press freedom in the Americas. For this reason, we are pleased to bring you this contributed opinion by Mr. Drew Johnson, reporter for The Daily Caller and senior scholar Taxpayers Protection Alliance in Washington, DC. This opinion does not reflect that of The Costa Rica Star or its advertiser...

(Wikimedia Commons) By Britt Nelson The dark side of politics reared its ugly head Thursday night during a political rally in California for New York Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump – massive police presence in riot gear, cops on horseback, a smashed police car, hatred on display in the streets, violence everywhere, shouting and fighting resulting in 20 arrests. Welcome to Ca...

From US Navy media gallery Washington, Apr 30 (EFE).- China has denied a U.S. aircraft carrier and other ships entry to a Hong Kong port, a Pentagon spokesman told CNN. "We were recently informed that a request for a port visit by a U.S. carrier strike group, including the USS John C. Stennis and accompanying vessels, to Hong Kong was denied," Cmdr. Bill Urban said Friday. "We have a lon...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Washington, D.C. – On the heels of World Intellectual Property Day, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has released the 2016 “Special 301” Report (PDF) on the global state of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman was joined by Members of Congress and the American business community...

(Archive image for illustrative purposes. Wikimedia Commons) By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Donald Trump’s five-state win Tuesday night is being called “astonishing” and “profound.” What’s so incredible is that the New York billionaire Republican won each county in ...

Source: Milena Santos Facebook Sao Paulo, Apr 26 (EFE).- Photos posted on Facebook by the dishy wife of Brazil's new tourism minister, taken in his office, have sparked controversy on the nation's social networks. Milena Santos, named Miss Bumbum 2013 in Miami, released on her Facebook profile photos posing in an office of the Tourism Ministry, now headed by her husband, Alessandro Golombiw...

An anti-GMO activist in San Francisco. Source: Wikimedia Commons By Juan Palop Hanover, Germany, Apr 23 (EFE).- Tens of thousands of people protested Saturday in Hanover against the TTIP trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, on a day when both U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed their unyielding support for the project. Th...